Wednesday, May 30, 2012

BlueJays Draft Preview

The MLB draft is less than a week
away so I decided to do a preview for my homer team the Toronto Blue Jays. The
Blue Jays have two picks in the first round (not counting the supplemental
round), pick 17 and 22. I don’t claim to be a draft expert. This is the first
year I have been really interested in the MLB draft. Because of that I will
only preview those two selections that they Jays have because honestly I don’t know
a lot about the players past the top 30. These are not players the Jays are going to pick or have been rumored to be picking just my opion of who they may take. The Blue Jays farm system is loaded
with pitching prospects, with 8 of their top 15 prospects being pitchers. The
rest consist of outfielders (headlined by Anthony Gose) and catchers (headlined
by Travis d’Arnaud). In their top 15 they have 1 infield prospect short stop
Adeiny Hechavarria. Every teams draft strategy should be to take the best
player available and I agree with that 100%. The goal with the draft in my
opinion is to draft the best player available and hopefully he fits in with
your organizational needs. The Blue Jays could get lucky in that respect with
this draft.

With
the17th overall selection I feel the Jays should take RHP Lucas Giolito. Giolito
was the best high school pitcher at the beginning of this season and had a
chance to be the first HS pitcher ever taken first overall. But as you all know
he suffered an elbow injury and was forced to miss the entire season. Giolito
would be a gamble pick because teams have no idea about his health and if he will
be the same pitcher again. Alex Anthopolous is known for taking risks in the
draft. If Giolito can recover from the injury and get back to where he was pre
injury the Jays will have an ace pitcher in the making, a steal at 17.

With
the 22nd overall pick I feel the Jays should select 3B Joey Gallo. I know what
people are thinking the Blue Jays have a young third baseman already in Brett
Lawrie. This is true but these players are so far away you can’t think like
that and pick based on position. Gallo has the most power in this draft. He fills
a need in the Jays minor league system a big time power bat. As he gets closer
to the bigs he may need a positional change may be necessary to fit him on the
MLB roster but again this is a few years down the road. He likely will be the
best player available to the Jays at 22 and he fills the need of power in the
Jays system there is no reason not to take him at 22.

Both
these players are high school guys which makes them perfect Anthopolous picks.
He likes to take the riskier player with high upside over the safer pick with lower
upside. Both these players are high risk high reward, but if they develop like
scouts think they can the Blue Jays may just have their ace and cleanup hitter
of the future.

Comments are appreciated let me know how I’m doing and what I
can improve on. You can follow me on twitter @PaulBerthelot. Thanks